ST. PETERSBURG — If the safety of those you love was threatened, how would you respond? Many people contemplate this question with commingled curiosity and fear. For Jeremy Reed and Anna Soto, the answer came early Sunday when a pair of violent men burst into the bedroom where they slept with their 7-day-old daughter. -------------------------------cut------------------------ By then, one of them had grabbed the keys to Soto's Mazda 6. They barreled out the front door and into the car. Reed ran back to the bedroom and emerged with a .22 rifle belonging to Soto. He stepped outside and pointed the gun...

She also told other unusually personal stories about her upbringing in the Bronx, like how she unknowingly brought her cousin to a drug den where he shot up heroin. Sotomayor went on to describe how her personal health battle with diabetes caused her to fear dying at a young age and, in turn, stopped her from having children. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor told of these intimate stories about her upbringing in her memoir, titled 'My Beloved World', which is due to be released in January.

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~ Freeper Canteen ~ Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Today We Want To Know..... What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking? Click here and take the quiz! To share your results, click "Get HTML", then copy and paste the code into a "Reply" box. Have fun! Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) today announced that state legislator Dave Agema's anti-Islam bill, known officially as HB 4769, may pass this week during Michigan's lame duck legislative session. (The bill is currently on the legislative calendar.) CAIR-MI is calling on all people of conscience to urge Governor Snyder to veto the biased bill which is among those that seek to impose government-sanctioned discrimination on followers of a minority faith. TAKE ACTION NOW (Michigan residents only. If you know anyone in Michigan please forward this alert to them.) http://tinyurl.com/ContactGovSnyder Michigan State Representative Dave Agema (R-Grandville),...

A Connecticut man is in custody after police say he concocted a twisted scheme in which he lured women to his Salisbury beach home, told them he was a doctor and performed invasive exams — all while hidden cameras rolled. David E. Anderson, 44, was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail in Newburyport District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to several charges, including possession of child pornography and four counts of photographing an unsuspecting nude person, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s office. The Newtown, Conn., man is also accused of secretly videotaping underage girls at the Salisbury...

During clashes with opponents of President Mohammed Morsi last Wednesday night, the Islamists took prisoners and tortured them with beatings. Eyewitness reports suggest that the police tolerated the attacks. The Islamists got hold of Mohammed Omar just as he was delivering bandages to a gas station where injured people were being treated. "You're an enemy of God!" they yelled at him. "There were five men. They beat me and dragged me away," says Omar, a computer expert who lives in Cairo. His face is bruised and his eyes are swollen shut, and his wrists are cut from the plastic cuffs...

America's daughters should not be sent into combat. Period. Part of the reason is philosophical: we want to live in a nation where we expect men to use their strength to protect the women in their world, not the other way round. But there are immensely practical reasons as well. God simply did not design women to have the same size, upper body strength, or stamina as men. It's just plain stupid to ignore this biological fact of nature. The Washington Post, for instance, recently ran a story on the "throwing gap" between men and women, which has stubbornly persisted...

In a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, 18 Democrat senators and senators-elect have asked for “a delay in the implementation” of the Obamacare medical device tax. Like most of the significant tax increases in Obamacare, the medical device tax is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2013, conveniently after the 2012 presidential election. Each of the 18 Democrat signatories voted for or supported Obamacare in the first place. And now they want a sweetheart exemption from one of its most onerous provisions. Even in Washington DC, that shows a lot of gall. The signatories to the letter are...

By 2030, for the first time in human history, a majority of the world’s population will not be impoverished and a politically powerful global middle class could total 3 billion people, up from 1 billion today. … These are among the findings of a quadrennial report, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds, by the National Intelligence Council, which reports to the U.S. director of national intelligence. … The world the council foresees is one in which the United States is no longer a uniquely dominant global power but remains preeminent because of its legacy strengths, its ability to form coalitions and...

North Korea launches rocket in defiance of critics 8:07pm EST SEOUL (Reuters) - Isolated and impoverished North Korea launched its second long- range rocket of 2012 on Wednesday in what it said was a bid to put a satellite into space. The North launched the rocket close to the first anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il and as elections loom in South Korea and Japan. The launch, reported by South Korean media, was confirmed by South Korea's Defense Ministry. Pyongyang says it is entitled to launch a satellite into space but critics say the rocket development is...

Joe Scarborough, MSNBC's "House Conservative," showed his desperation to please his liberal audience today on his 2nd place cable morning show "Morning Joe." Watch the video below to see the former Republican congressman explain that the conservative movement has lost its way thanks to "talk radio hosts and bloggers" who are "making tens of millions of dollars. They’re getting rich, and hey’re irrelevant." In the world according to Joe, major media companies throw millions of dollars to tv and radio hosts based on their LACK of significance. Scarborough spoke in shallow vagaries, in keeping with the show's grueling format which...

It's Time To Tell Paulson, Bernanke, And Geithner: You Were Right And We Were Wrong — Thank You For Saving The Economy Mark Dow, Behavioral MacroDec. 11, 2012, 2:07 PM URL Mark Dow is a proprietary trader and author of the blog Behavioral Macro. The U.S. Treasury this morning rid itself of the last piece of exposure it had to AIG, the insurer at the center of the 2008 financial crisis. Both the Fed and the U.S. Treasury intervened heavily during the crisis, with the ostensible objective of stabilizing the system and circuit-breaking the self-reinforcing fear that was already rippling...

Obama 'confident' GOP will relent on tax increases Posted by CNN Political Unit (CNN) - With tax hikes and federal spending cuts only weeks away, President Barack Obama said he is 'optimistic' a deal will be met to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff and anticipates Republicans will not hold middle-class taxes 'hostage' in budget negotiations. "I remain optimistic that there are enough people of goodwill in this town that recognize our economy will be much better off; American families will be much better off if we get this done," the president said in an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC,...

Agenda 21 - Glenn Beck, Harriet Parke, 2012 Book Review: Glenn Beck's Agenda 21 The New American 11 December 2012 Picture yourself living in a small cell in a tightly packed set of compounds divided from the rest of the world by a fence. Your every action is monitored. Your nourishment and water are carefully rationed and given only at designated times. The color of your uniform identifies your occupation. No you are not in prison, but rather the citizen of an all-powerful Republic that has replaced what was once the United States. This fenced set of compounds, located somewhere...

Just think — if Democrats win the midterm elections in 2014, we could see this kind of success on a national scale! California has struggled with massive budget deficits for years, but the political class in Sacramento stumbled on the perfect solution to falling revenues and rising costs … soaking the business world to seize more capital for further spending. The state held its first auction of cap-and-trade credits, and projected that businesses would spend a billion dollars in buying, er, vapor. Those projections were just a teensy bit optimistic, as Bloomberg’s Steven Greenhut explains: In late November, the California Air...

<p>"A student at Fresno State University is suing his professors for allegedly putting him on disciplinary probation because of his politics, and he has video that he says proves his case."</p>
<p>“I can’t think of a reason besides that they just don’t like conservatives, and just don’t like to answer questions on anything.”</p>

She has become a hit on the Today Show with her warm on-air presence, but Jenna Bush Hager will be taking time off from the small screen to have her first child, MailOnline can reveal. The daughter of former President George W Bush is expecting a baby with her husband Henry Hager - and debuted her bump on the NBC show on Tuesday morning. The pretty blonde, 31, looked blooming as she showed off her fuller figure as she joined her twin sister Barbara at the UNICEF Snowflake ball in Manhattan last month. And as she returned to her New...

America’s carbon-dioxide emissions are actually falling. In fact, they have not been this low since 1992. And while no single factor can account for the entire shift, much of the credit goes to something environmentalists often detest: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Among power sources, the worst source of CO2 emissions by far is coal. Natural gas generates half the CO2 per kilowatt-hour, and in the past few years natural gas has displaced coal to a remarkable degree. This year gas-fired electricity generation equaled coal-fired generation for the first time. According to the Energy Information Administration, that trend will continue as...

Seventy-five percent of the new revenue pulled in by President Barack Obama's "fiscal cliff" plan would go toward new spending, not toward deficit reduction, the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee contends. Here's a chart, detailing how money from the new tax hikes would be distributed: According to the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee, $1.2 trillion of the proposed $1.6 trillion in tax hikes would go toward new spending, while only $400 billion would go toward deficit reduction. "The [president's] plan called for $1.6 trillion in new taxes, twice what the president asked for in the campaign....

The president says right-to-work laws mean "the right to work for less money." So how does he explain the fact that incomes are up in RTW states while forced unionism is a proven job killer? Campaigning Monday in Michigan as it stood poised to become the nation's 24th right-to-work state, President Obama spoke the exact opposite of the truth to union workers at a Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in the birthplace of organized labor. "What we shouldn't be doing," he told the small crowd, "is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages. We don't want a...

Culture War Segment Is there a growing anti-Christian bias in America? Guests: Gretchen Carlson and Jeanine Pirro The Factor asked Culture Warriors Gretchen Carlson and Jeanine Pirro whether there is indeed a "war on Christmas." "We've always had nativity scenes and creches and menorahs," Pirro said, "but all of a sudden these things are being suppressed. Courts are saying that any identification of religion in any way is unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment." Carlson complained about the tyranny of the minority. "We now listen to the 1% in society that feels this way. It's usually just one...

Enlarge Image Up and away. Whereas a point charge is always attracted to an underlying surface, a sideways moving line of charge can be repelled, one physicist calculates. Credit: PrimoÂž R. RibiÄŤ, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2012) It's textbook physics: An electric charge near the surface of a material gets pulled toward the surface. However, if the charge is spread out into the right shape and moves fast enough, that attraction becomes a repulsion, one physicist calculates. The odd finding could help physicists avoid unexpected effects when guiding beams of particles such as electrons. "At first I thought this was...

ONTARIO, 11 December, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An illustrated graphic released by one of Canada’s leading national newspapers is being welcomed by pro-life activists after it showed life-sized illustrations of unborn children next to statistics about how many babies that age are being aborted. At 9-12 weeks, for instance, where 41.2 percent of babies are aborted, the image shows a small baby with already discernible toes, fingers and eyes. “I was absolutely thrilled to see a secular news source cover this,” Jonathon Van Maren, communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, told LifeSiteNews. The graphic provides a breakdown of...

As the clock ticks toward a tax hike on all Americans in 20 days, President Obama predicted Republicans would join Democrats to extend current rates for 98 percent of earners before the end of the year. "I'm pretty confident that Republicans would not hold middle class taxes hostage to trying to protect tax cuts for high-income individuals," Obama said today in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters. "I don't think they'll do that," he said of Republicans forcing tax-rate increases for families earning $250,000 a year or less. The sign of optimism follows weeks of tense negotiations and...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama declared Syria's main opposition group the sole "legitimate representative" of its country's people Tuesday, deeming the move "a big step" in the international diplomatic efforts to end Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled regime. Obama said the newly formed Syrian Opposition Council "is now inclusive enough" to be granted the elevated status, which paves the way for the greater U.S. support for the organization.

A leftist party that is running in the elections for the next Knesset has asked the Central Election Committee to disqualify Michael Ben-Ari, Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir from running in the elections in the “Power to Israel” party. The party that filed the appeal, leftist Eldad Yaniv’s Eretz Hadasha (lit. New Country), said that the three are guilty of incitement, racism and violation of democracy. Eretz Hadasha is also calling to disqualify Likud candidates Miri Regev and Danny Danon. In the appeal, the Power to Israel members are called the "Flowers of Kahane" because of their support for the...

We Are Being Targeted. Our People Are Dying! In America today, almost as many African-American children are aborted as are born. A black baby is three times more likely to be aborted as a white baby. Since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population by over 25 percent. Twice as many African-Americans have died from abortion than have died from AIDS, accidents, violent crimes, cancer, and heart disease combined.

Tzipi Livni lit Hanukkah candles Tuesday evening with activists from her new party.... “In every generation a group of people arise who do not give in, and who fight against every challenge, even if it is hard and the odds do not look good,” she said. “The group keeps fighting to bring the light.”

CALIFORNIA December 10, 2012 – The tragedy of viciously taking another person’s life is always difficult to understand. But to appear noble and use these tragedies for ideological gain only cheapens the life that was lost. In the high profile murder/suicide case of Jovan Belcher of the NFL Kansas City Chiefs, the complex debate over gun control exploded on cue just like after the Aurora shooting incident (see my article here). To reduce the number of violent murders, the real culprit must be identified. If it’s purely a matter of a weapon’s existence, then severely limiting their availability or banning...

The taxes Israel collected for the Palestinian Authority but did not pass on should go to Israel anyway to cover the PA’s debts, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday, speaking at a Hanukkah event for Yisrael Beytenu party activists. “I hear they’re saying that Israel froze the Palestinians’ tax money. We didn’t freeze any Palestinian money,” he said. “To this point we paid 700 million shekels advance salaries for PA workers and we paid another 900 million when we absorbed the cost of water and electricity that the Palestinians were supposed to pay for but did not… What we’re doing...

Chinese families did not give consent for children to consume genetically modif[i]ed rice in the part US-funded study. China has sacked three officials for breaching Chinese laws and ethical regulations during a trial in which children were fed genetically modified rice. The trialÂ’s legitimacy was questioned in August by the environmental group Greenpeace. A three-month investigation, led by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), culminated in the decision on 6 December to sack two members of the CDCÂ’s own staff Â— Yin ShiÂ’an, the principal investigator of the Chinese arm of the project, in Beijing, and Hu...

The role government plays in surveillance has long been a topic of debate. For years, we’ve heard stories of the U.S. government accessing data from citizens unbeknownst to them or those with whom they’re communicating. And time and again, privacy advocates argue that our rights are being violated. In a recent interview with Russia Times (RT), a former National Security Agency code breaker William Binney threw some more gas on the fire by saying that the U.S. government is currently in possession of all e-mails sent between citizens, and houses them for use at a later time. “The FBI has...

Illinois is the only state in the country that does not make some provision for ordinary citizens to carry concealed firearms. But not for long. Today, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said the state ban is unconstitutional because it violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. It's a surprising decision, and it may not survive Supreme Court scrutiny. But it has forced state legislators, who have 180 days to draft a new conceal-carry law, to take the idea seriously -- something they have stubbornly refused to do. There is a strong anti-gun culture in Illinois, particularly...

GOP throws Obama's old deficit stands back at him Dec 11, 2:17 PM (ET) By CHARLES BABINGTON WASHINGTON (AP) - Some of the best Republican arguments against President Barack Obama's proposals to avoid a "fiscal cliff" come from the president himself, in comments he made months or years before his re-election. Stung by the GOP's midterm election gains in 2010, Obama took stands that differ from his current positions on raising tax rates, adjusting Social Security and other topics now dominating Washington as a Dec. 31 deadline nears. Sometimes gleefully, Republicans throw Obama's old words back at him. They portray...

Courtesy of the $83 billion auto bailout - on which we are already poised to lose more than $40 billion - the taxpayers are stuck with 26% stock ownership of General Motors (GM). It could get much worse. Judge Set to Rule on Case That Could Reverse Auto Bailout A New York federal judge may rule imminently on a case that could reverse the General Motors bailout and send the company back into bankruptcy.... At issue is a backroom deal hatched by GM to fulfill the Obama administration’s demand for a quick bankruptcy, draining the automaker of nearly all of...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Legislature gave final approval Tuesday to a bitterly contested right-to-work plan limiting the power of unions, a devastating and once unthinkable defeat for organized labor in a state considered a cradle of the movement. Unswayed by Democrats' pleas and thousands of protesters inside and outside the state Capitol, the House approved two final bills, sending them on to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. One dealt with private sector workers, the other with government employees. Both measures cleared the Senate last week.

“America will always be strong because of communities like Westfield,” Karen Worcester, executive director of Wreaths Across America, said while attending a special veterans’ memorial at Stanley Park on Tuesday. More than 200 city veterans, schoolchildren and residents attended the ceremony and welcomed Worcester and her entourage that included Maine’s First Lady Ann LePage, American Gold Star Mothers president Mary Beyers, retired Army Major Gen. Peter M. Aylward and eight tractor-trailers full of holiday wreaths en route to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. “My heart is full seeing all the children and others who turned out today,” said Worcester,...

Key lawmakers expressing concerns about the Obama administration's plan to send 20 F-16 fighter jets to Egypt, where new President Mohamed Morsi's allegiances are as uncertain as his grip on power. Under a foreign aid deal signed in 2010, when Morsi's U.S.-friendly predecessor Hosni Mubarak was in charge, the U.S. is giving the planes to Egypt's air force, which already has more than 200 of the aircraft. The first four jets are to be delivered beginning Jan. 22, a source at the naval air base in Fort Worth, where the planes have been undergoing testing, told FoxNews.com. But the $213...

Small-scale trial provides hope for treatment of autistic behaviour in children. A drug normally used to increase the rate at which people urinate improves some of the symptoms of autism in children, according to a small clinical trial published today in Translational Psychiatry1. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired communication and social interactions, and also by repetitive behaviours in those affected. Research has shown that signalling by a molecule called GABA, a neurotransmitter which normally dampens down neuronal activity, is altered in autism. And that this disruption of GABA is due to increased levels of chloride ions in...

Putin has called for Communist leader Vladimir Lenin's body to be preserved in its mausoleum on Red Square, comparing the embalmed body of the founder of the Soviet state to the relics of saints. "Many are saying that having Lenin's Mausoleum runs counter to the tradition. But what runs counter to tradition?" Putin told a meeting with celebrities who campaigned for him in the March 2012 presidential election, according to the Kremlin website. "Just go to Kiev Pechersk Lavra or check out Pskov Monastery or Mount Athos. You'll see the relics of saints there." Putin cited almost word-for-word the present-day...

OSLO, Norway (AP) — American actress Sarah Jessica Parker praised the EU on Tuesday for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for pacifying Europe and uniting its different cultures after World War II, and she said the bloc should serve as an example to the United States, given the divisions its recent elections have brought to the surface. Parker said that while it might be controversial to have awarded the 27-nation EU the prestigious award as it struggles with a financial crisis that is causing hardship to many, it is "a terrific blueprint for us," and one the U.S. should learn...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

India will be the fastest-growing market, with exports to the South Asian nation expanding at an annual rate of 12% between 2016 and 2020, and staying in the double digits beyond then. Vietnam is another strong future trading partner for the United States, with double-digit annualized trade growth forecast over the next five to 15 years. Other promising new markets in the future include Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Mexico and Poland.

Got a cold? Treat yourself to a cold one. A new study, reports Agence France-Presse, suggests that a chemical compound in beer can help the human body fight the virus behind the common cold. Of course, there are some important caveats. First, the study was conducted and published by Sapporo Breweries, a Japanese beer manufacturer, through its Sapporo Medical University. And secondly, an adult would have to drink about 30 cans of beer to get enough humulone, the compound said to have anti-viral properties. The humulone found in hops, one of beer's three main ingredients, gives the alcoholic drink its...

FULL TITLE: 'British whites' are the minority in London for the first time as census shows number of UK immigrants has jumped by 3million in 10 years White British people are now in a minority in London for the first time, it emerged today as census data revealed that the immigrant population of England and Wales went up by 3million over the past decade.